By phone or email
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Are you a parent, kinship carer relative or friend of a child who is involved with, or who needs the help of, children’s services in England? We can help you understand processes and options when social workers or courts are making decisions about your child’s welfare.
Our advice service is free, independent and confidential.
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Our online advice forums are an anonymous space where parents and kinship carers (also known as family and friends carers) can get legal and practical advice, build a support network and learn from other people’s experiences.
Our get help and advice section has template letters, advice sheets and resources about legal and social care processes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can use our webchat service to chat online to an adviser.
Someone may be able to get legal aid to apply for one of these orders if:
The person applying for legal aid will need to show the child is at risk of harm in this way. There are strict forms of evidence which are required to prove this. This evidence is often referred to as gateway evidence. The evidence will have to be shown to the Legal Aid Agency (LAA).
Even if the person applying for legal aid can provide the right gateway evidence, they will only get legal if they can meet two tests:
This involves looking at their financial situation. Their income and savings must be below a set level to qualify for legal aid. A solicitor will need to do a financial assessment. This will involve looking at the person’s bank statements for the last three months
This means the person wanting legal aid will have to demonstrate that they have a good case. To work out if they do, a solicitor must look at whether the person is likely to be successful in getting what they want in the case. To do this the solicitor has to ask themselves this question – ‘Would a reasonable person would use their own money to pay for the case?’ If they think the answer is yes, then the merits test will be met.
A specialist children law solicitor will be able give advice about whether someone is eligible for legal aid.
Someone wishing to apply for a child arrangements order or special guardianship order may also be able to get legal aid:
But the means and merits tests will still apply (see above).
To find a solicitor, search using the ‘how to find a solicitor’ function on the Law Society website. Look for someone who is a child law specialist. Or who has Children Law Accreditation. For information about working with a solicitor, please see our top tips guide Working with a solicitor.
We have advice sheets looking at how wider family members and friends can apply for a child arrangements order and a special guardianship order. We call these our ‘DIY guides’. Step by step, they explain the legal and practical process to apply for an order. It includes information about legal aid. And includes information which to help anyone who has not been able to get legal aid or solicitor to help them:
These are all available on our Advice sheets page.
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